Importers capitalise on Samsung injunction
Offshore gadget importers are rubbing their hands together following the injunction slapped on Samsung against its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, with one importer telling ZDNet Australia that he's been "banking on" the ban.
The director of dmavo.com.au, an online-only importer of gadgets great and small, told ZDNet Australia that he is now importing hundreds of tablets to capitalise on the demand for the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
"Before the injunction, we were importing about 20-30 units a week. Pretty small. We had to be a little bit wary of where the case will go, and what decisions would be made," a director of Dmavo (who asked not to be named) told ZDNet Australia.
"Now that the news is out that Samsung won't be releasing the tablets locally, [the number of devices being imported is] in the hundreds at this stage," he said, adding that the number of devices imported will likely increase due to the Christmas rush.
"We've seen a large influx of queries in the last 24 hours. We've had a much larger influx of inquiries now that the injunction news is out."
When asked about the moral implications of making a profit off Samsung's loss by importing the device from the US, the director said that he didn't see an issue with it.
"It's an interesting question, but we are a business. I don't think it's ethically or morally wrong."
Dmavo is treading a path worn before it by online shopping entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan, after his company, Kogan Technology, started offering the US version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Kogan abruptly pulled the tablet from its product catalogue, however, after Apple flexed its legal muscle, threatening to take the company to court.
Dmavo isn't worried about Apple and its threats, however.
"As I understand it," the director said, "Apple had no legal basis for the threats. If they threaten us, we'd do a bit of a restructure. We could create another company just for the sales of tablets.
"We're hosted overseas, we operate online, they can't shut our website down."
Samsung had its flagship 10.1-inch tablet held from the Australian market yesterday due to the legal storm brought against it by Apple in August.